My name is Matt Nicoll and I am a high school teacher in New Zealand, interested in improving the classroom experience for my students. I am open to trialing new approaches and hope to use this blog to reflect on my ideas and practices.

Tuesday, 18 October 2016

Subject Communities, not Silos…

During the week, two of our tasks involved the unpacking
of two Learning Areas from the New Zealand Curriculum: one given to us (not one we strongly identified with –
unfamiliar text, you might say…); and the one we most strongly identified with.
For me, this meant the first task was to try and unpack Health and Physical
Education and to present what I thought to others, one of whom was actually an
HPE specialist! For the second task, I worked with another Science specialist to
unpack this Learning Area, and present the key elements (and “non-negotiables”)
to all other staff.

One of our Senior Leaders talked about how we needed to
be respectful when unpacking Learning Areas that were not our own. He addressed
the term “Silos” that keeps being bandied around. He explained that he preferred
to think of these more as Communities. This resonated with me. These
Communities are populated by people. These people have adapted to be successful
in these Communities. These people know what the key elements are for being
successful in their respective Community. These strengths and predispositions need
to be respected when we try to communicate which elements we see as being
important in our new (broader, connected) Community of Learning…

If we think of Silos instead, it is very easy to forget
the human side of the Learning Areas. I know that I immediately think of each
Silo being a different part of a machine, doing its own unique and important role,
that contributes to the functioning of the machine we call Student Learning. To
get those Silos (machine parts) to work together successfully takes a fair bit
of coordination. It often takes students a long time to see the connections
between the parts. I guess this analogy works for me as well, but it lacks the
human element of Communities. I like the human element.

What about those tasks?

Unfamiliar Learning Area

He oranga ngākau, he pikinga waiora.

We were given a period of time to try and break the Learning
Area down into 20 (or so) words/key points. From this, we had to break it down
into only five!! When discussing multi-disciplinary learning with peers in the
past, the common concern has been about the potential for “dilution” of content
and key skills. This thought struck me again – only five words/key points?!

Once I started, it was surprising how easily this
Learning Area unpacked. A couple of different ways to arrange the Learning Area
quickly evolved for me:

Four Strands/Contexts

Personal Health and Physical Development

Movement Concepts and Motor Skill

Relationships with Other People

Healthy Communities and Environments

Four Concepts

Hauora

Attitudes and values

The socio-ecological perspective

Health promotion

Ultimately, though, I felt that everything emanated from
Hauora. Therefore, I felt I had my five words, so long as I showed their
interdependence with arrows:

Then came the tough part. Share this with someone from
the HPE Community. When I fleshed out my simple little diagram with some thoughts
about context and content, this was received much better than I thought!!

Familiar Learning Area

Mā te whakaaro nui e hanga te whare;
mā te mātauranga e whakaū

The task for this seemed much easier. It was the same
task but within “my” Community – Science. I worked with another member of the
same Community. This should be easy, surely! Not so. Within our Community, each
member seems to put different value on different elements of the Community.
That is natural.

However, what prevented this becoming a barrier was how
easily these could be fleshed out. We were speaking the same language. We were
able to group, classify and categorise our own ideas into bigger pictures under
the “Nature of Science” umbrella. Finding five words/key concepts was,
ultimately, not too tough (being familiar with TKI helped a
lot with this, too!!):

Evidence-based

Knowledge is Provisional

Uses Models
and Theories

Influenced by Society

We then unpacked each strand (Material World, Physical
World, Living World, and Planet Earth and Beyond) into a couple of key “non-negotiable”
points. These were the elements we felt were non-negotiable and may not be “diluted”
by involvement in multi-disciplinary learning. Student learning must include the key elements (content
and/or skills) of Science we identified. Boiled down, we did really get it down
to:

Matter

Energy

Forces

MRS GREN

Ecosystems

Inheritance

Cycles

Throw in some critical thinking, and I think the key
words and non-negotiables cover the nature of the Nature of Science. The
excitement came from hearing how other Learning Areas were unpacked, and seeing
how Science could complement each of those “Communities” without diluting
either.

In fact, I can imagine how each Community (Learning Area) will be
enhanced, along with the overall learning of each student, by having natives
from each Community involved in each multi-disciplinary module. The NZ Police
may build “Safer Communities Together”, but we will build “Stronger [Learning] Communities
Together”.

#scichatNZ

In my mind, #scichatNZ exists for the growth of Science as a Community (rather as a "Silo"). Rachel, Chhaya and I are very keen to welcome "non-Scientists" into the #scichatNZ Community. This is a Community with members who have a passion for Science and Education. They "live" where these two Communities meet. Some Community members also "live" in other Communities. This enables them to bring their expertise from their experiences in these Communities into #scichatNZ chats and the #scichatNZ Community, in general.

More than just preserving the subject Community (Silo?) and its special characters (skills, content, systems etc.), #scichatNZ is inviting in new members and growing from their experiences. The Community grows by having regular input and collaboration between members from different Communities who visit or also live in the #scichatNZ Community.